Pages

Welcome

Welcome! Artfully Musing is a blog dedicated to sharing art and the techniques and products used. I'll be showcasing collage, altered and mixed media art as well as miniature. I hope you'll check back often and are inspired. Thanks for visiting! Laura

Friday, January 22, 2016

As part of the countdown to Valentines Day, I
have two more romantic themed pieces to share.
These pieces were started last year when the Alpha Stamps Star
Crossed Lovers Kit came out in January 2015. Usually when I work on a kit I make more than
one piece, sometimes even three or four.
This was one of the additional pieces which didn’t get finished as I was
not happy with the direction I was going.

I had originally hinged the two pieces together, but
after laying out different designs I just wasn’t happy. In a last ditch effort to save them from the
trash can (which is where pieces I hate go), I took them apart and focused on
them separately (which finally took me to my happy place!).

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

For both of the pieces I started by
covering a piece of chipboard with decorative paper. Next, on both pieces I added images from
the Alpha
Stamps Juliet Collage Sheet.

I also used one of the frames from my Elegant
Frames Set Download. I printed the
frame twice and cut away part of the bottom of the frames (the back of the
frame is covered with coordinating cardstock).
The frame I used is the last one (far right) on the second row in the
picture below. I love using large frame
images to give a piece structure.

STAR CROSSED LOVERS

In the picture below you can see the
holes going down the right side of the piece, but no worries as the cascading
flowers will hide my misstep.

I started building the flower cascade by
attach leaves from my stash. I think
these leaves had a flower that I used on another project.

Next I added the larger burgundy, white and
yellow flowers.

The brown beaded flowers
are from my stash. Next, I added the
smaller burgundy and white roses and rose buds.
The ones on the right hide the holes. As a final touch to the flower cascade I
added paper butterflies.

On the left side of the piece I added a
green vine using a rub-on from my stash.
Red bead add a sense of red buds on the vine.

In addition to the vine, I used a clock from
my Tick Tock collage sheet. I added
Glossy Accents to the center to give it a domed and shinny appearance.

At the bottom I added a chipboard
flourish painted gold, two Dresden white swans rubbed with Inca Gold Gilders
Paste and black Swarovski crystals for eyes.
The final touch is the red and gold glass bead.

The approach for this piece was the same
as the one above. I used the same
chipboard, paper frame, decorative paper (opposite side) and the image from the
Juliet collage Sheet.

Next, I added half of a chipboard gate
(painted gold) to give the piece even more of an architectural feel and to cover
the holes on the left side. I also added
lace (from my stash) to the top right side of the piece.

Next, I glued the image in place and
started building her heart crown. I used
one of the crowns from the Natures Crowns collage sheet as the base.

Using heart stick pins I added small heart
beads and glued the stickpins behind the crown.
In the center I also added a glass heart bead to the stickpin in addition
to the small heart bead. To the front I
added a gold heart, rhinestones, and a piece of trim to the crown. The final touch was to add some leaves behind
the crown.

To the bottom of the piece I added first
lace, a large piece of beaded trim and a small piece of beaded trim. Next, I added resin swirls and beaded flowers. The final touch is the sugared bloom with acrylic
leaves.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

To kick off the New Year, I have Valentine
themed tags to share with you. I've been doing so many miniatures lately I thought it would be fun change to create some collaged pieces. First up,
are romantic art tags featuring Victorian women.

You’ll notice on each tag, along with
other elements, I’ve incorporated one or more hearts.

The Amour 6x6 paper pad I used for the
tags is loaded with beautiful papers.

Next, up are fun vintage Valentine tags
that can be used as gift tags or on a Valentine card and are super quick to make. The images are from my new “Valentine Cuties”collage sheet. The base of the tags is a
new gift tag sheet I’ve created that is free with purchase at Alpha Stamps
(more details below).

This new sheet includes 7 cuties in two
sizes, three Valentine banners and two different styles of hearts in various sizes.

FREE GIFT TAG COLLAGE SHEET WITH PURCHASE

Alpha Stamps is giving away a Gift Tag
collage sheet (designed by me) with every order placed January 7th though the 10th. This versatile sheet contains 12 blank
tags (in two sizes) that can be used for any occasion.

In addition to the images from the free Gift Tag and Valentine Cuties collage sheets, I also used ribbon to jazz up the tags.

Next, I added the woman (focal point),
Dresden myrtle leaves, and a chipboard hot air balloon. The balloon is painted red and backed with
paper from the paper pad.The basket is
painted gold and a black ribbon is tied around the middle of the balloon.

At this point I decided the bottom needed
more ribbon so I added black lace to the back and a black, white and gold braid
to the front. Adding these touches of black to the bottom balances out the black ribbon tied around the balloon.

I continued by adding the woman to the
center, flowers at the bottom, a heart stick pin glued behind a heart button
(with the shank removed) and three butterflies from the Butterflies and Moths collage sheet.

I then added the image of the woman (both behind the frame at the bottom and on top of the frame at the top) then attached the frame to the tag.The frame is from the Elegant Frames digital set and is popped up from the background.

To the sides of the frame I added
berries (these come in the set with the leaves) and a heart stick pin threaded
through a puffy bead heart and a cherub button glued between (shank
removed). On top of the puffy bead heart
I glued a piece of filigree.